Vanessa Demopoulos

Overview

Four of her five UFC wins went the distance, and the one that didn't ended in 2:25 of the first round. Vanessa Demopoulos, "Lil Monster," fights at women's strawweight and holds a 5-6 UFC record, with an 11-9 mark across all promotions.

She carries a four-fight losing streak into her next fight, three of those losses by decision and the latest a first-round knockout loss to Yazmin Jauregui in 1:02. Her best run was three straight wins in 2022 and 2023. The four-fight skid is the story now.

UFC Career

Her UFC debut, a unanimous decision loss to JJ Aldrich in August 2021, came a year after a unanimous decision loss to Cory McKenna on Dana White's Contender Series. That fight isn't part of her UFC record.

She answered with her only finish. At UFC 270 in January 2022, she submitted Silvana Gomez Juarez in 2:25 of round one. Two more wins followed, a split decision over Jinh Yu Frey and a unanimous decision over Maria Oliveira. That made three in a row, her longest streak.

Karolina Kowalkiewicz stopped it with a unanimous decision in May 2023. She bounced back against Kanako Murata and took a split decision over Emily Ducote in May 2024.

Then the slide. Jaqueline Amorim submitted her in the first round of a September 2024 fight, at 3:28. Unanimous decision losses to Talita Alencar and Jamey-Lyn Horth followed in 2025, and the Jauregui loss is the only knockout on her UFC record.

Eleven UFC fights. Ten went at least to the third round or the first-round stoppage. Not much middle ground.

Fighting Style

Vanessa Demopoulos is a striker who trades more than she wrestles. She lands at a rate close to the UFC average, but she gets hit often and has a hard time avoiding strikes. That matches the one knockout loss on her record.

She isn't a grappler by output. She rarely shoots for takedowns and gets taken down more than most, and she doesn't hunt for submissions much either. Her lone submission win, a first-round finish, is the exception rather than the pattern.

Her results track that profile. Four of her five UFC wins and four of her six losses went to the scorecards, so she usually goes the distance and has to win rounds to win fights.

Notable Wins

• Silvana Gomez Juarez — submission, round 1 (2:25), UFC 270 (2022)
• Jinh Yu Frey — split decision, UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs. Gamrot (2022)
• Kanako Murata — unanimous decision, UFC Fight Night: Dawson vs. Green (2023)
• Emily Ducote — split decision, UFC Fight Night: Barboza vs Murphy (2024)

Quick Facts

• Division: Women's Strawweight
• UFC record: 5-6
• Professional record (all promotions): 11-9-0
• UFC debut: 2021
• Stance: Orthodox
• Height / reach: 5'2" / 59.5"
• Team: UFC Performance Institute
• Born: Cleveland, OH, United States